10 Essential Spider-Man Villains Not Yet Used In The Movies

Man, the Far From Home trailer was a wild ride eh? A whistlestop tour through Spidey's greatest cinematic adversaries (and Electro) culminating in that Doc Ock reveal, the trailer did a great job setting off the hype senses of Spidey fans the world over.

Yet after watching it again (and again and again), one thing becomes clear - Marvel and Sony's silver-screen efforts have barely scratched the surface of Spider-Man's rogues gallery.

For this list we'll be looking at the bad guys who have yet to tangle with everyone's favourite wall-crawler, either in the MCU or Sony's various Spider-verses. From lovable losers to homicidal maniacs, there's a plethora of Spider-Man villains waiting in the wings for a screen-writer to do them justice.

That last point is an important one here. There has been some bending of the rules on this list, as some of the names here have made cameo appearances in the movies. However, they only showed up in civilian form rather than their more famous alter-egos and as such were fair game for this article.

And to illustrate that point...

Spidey fans of a certain age will remember Alistair Smythe as the wheelchair-bound scientist from the classic '90s Spider-Man cartoon. There, Alistair was a tragic villain who wrongly blamed Spidey for his father's death and underwent one of the most traumatic character transformations in cartoon history when he was forced into a cybernetic body against his will.

Spidey fans from a younger generation will likely not remember Alistair Smythe as the bespectacled suit from Amazing Spider-Man 2. There, Alistair's sole role was to kickstart Electro's transformation by ordering hapless flunky Max Dillon to perform risky maintenance near a task of MacGuffin-powered electric eels. After Electro appears Smythe disappears from the movie, ceding the stage to a far less interesting villain.

*Sigh*. Great work Sony. Saved yourselves from having to create a compelling character arc there.

Honestly, the script for Alistair Smythe writes itself. Introduce his father Spencer as a prologue villain à la "Guy who shoots Uncle Ben" in Spider-Man 1, have Spidey inadvertently bump him off, and allow Alistair to step in as the main villain.

Yes it's clichéd, but clichés exist because they work. "You killed my father, prepare to die" is classic storytelling. "I'm pissed off because I fell in a vat of eels", not so much.